1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a electronic equipment with an apparatus for isolating cavities. More specifically, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide an electrical equipment with an apparatus for electrically isolating cavities within the electrical equipment.
2. Description of Related Arts
For electronic equipment, such as a RF amplifier, components that emit or are susceptible to electromagnetic interference (xe2x80x9cEMIxe2x80x9d) must be contained or shielded, respectively, within the electronic equipment. Often times the components within an electronic equipment are contained or shielded by being placed in an isolated cavity. FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional apparatus for isolating a cavity within an electronic equipment. Specifically, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bulkhead plate 10 that includes an overhang support 11, alternating fingers 12 on the sides with dimplings 13, and spring fingers 14 on the bottom. FIG. 2 shows the bulkhead plate 10 installed onto a surface such as a printed circuit board 15 with open ended inner walls 16, wherein the bulkhead plate 10 is held in place by clipping the fingers 12 on the inner walls 16, and wherein the dimplings 13 on the fingers 12 apply additional resilient force against the open ended inner walls 16. The spring fingers 14 provide resilient support for the bulkhead plate 10, and partially compensate occasional irregularities on the lower surface 15. The fingers 12 and spring fingers 14 also serve as grounding paths, hence isolating the adjacent cavities from EMI. Typically, the spring fingers 14 are required to be about half as thin as the bulkhead plate 10. This is required because the spring fingers 14 must be sufficiently thin to be flexible and thus provide the spring-like qualities. Due the requirements that the spring fingers 14 be very thin, it is often necessary to chemically etch the spring fingers 14 in order to achieve the desired thinness.
FIGS. 1 and 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,368 show another example of a similar conventional apparatus for isolating a cavity within electrical circuitry. More specifically, bulkhead plate 1 includes an overhang support 4, fingers 3 with dimplings 6, and passthrough filters 2. The bulkhead plate 1 can be mounted within an enclosure 7 with a frame member 8. Electrical wires can passthrough the bulkhead plate 1 through filters 2, allowing the two adjacent compartments to maintain EMI isolation while still permitting electrical connections between the two compartments.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention include a cavity isolator that provides a grounding path from wall to wall and from lid to base of an enclosure such that the isolated cavities are shielded from each other""s EMI emissions. More specifically, the preferred embodiments provide a S-shaped plate structure having fingers on opposite edges. The S-shaped plate structure can be vertically inserted between two cavities with the fingers applying loads to the inner support walls that separate the two cavities.
Advantages of the present invention include ease and cheap manufacturing, since it is not necessary to individually bend the fingers, and no etching of edges are necessary. The present invention also provides the advantage of permitting flexibility in the design of the actual S-shape, allowing the designer to vary the dimensions and curves with ease to match a variety of application requirements.
Additional advantages of the present invention include superior EMI isolation over the conventional bulkhead plates, ability to interface with the base and lid at a wide range of locations relative to the support walls, ability to control the interface between the fingers and the support walls, and improved grounding of the EMI emissions. The details of specific embodiments and their respective advantages will be further described below.